THE GROUPS AND ANCESTRY OF ORGANISMS 



97 



A general term to refer to any taxonomic category 

 is useful. A single taxonomic category is called a 

 taxon (plural, taxa). 



NOMENCLATURE 



Nomenclature is the scientific naming of organisms. 

 Scientific names for species (generally considered 

 "the scientific name") are binomial, consisting of 

 both the generic and specific names. Man belongs to 

 the genus Homo and species sapiens. His scientific 

 name, a combination of the generic and specific 

 names, is Homo sapiens. Parenthetically we must 

 avoid possible confusion. There are two meanings of 

 "specific name." So far we used this term to indicate 

 a single word in a binomial. However, "specific 

 name" also can mean "the binomial scientific name" 

 of a species. For example, the specific name of man is 

 Homo sapiens. Moreover, unless one is referring 

 separately to binomial components, the scientific 

 name always is two words. 



When written or printed, scientific names must 

 conform to certain set procedures. Notice that the 

 generic name is capitalized and the second word is 

 uncapitalized. This standard procedure is always fol- 

 lowed in this book and is essential for animal designa- 

 tions. In some botanical names it also is proper to 

 capitalize the second word; however, it is always cor- 

 rect to capitalize only the first word, the generic 

 name. In addition, specific names must be either 

 underlined, italicized, or printed in boldface type. 

 Often the last name, or an abbreviation of the last 

 name, of the biologist who proposed the organism's 

 name is appended to the scientific name, as in Homo 

 sapiens L., the L. being an abbreviation of Carl von 

 Linne ("Linnaeus"), who proposed the scientific 

 name for man. Sometimes the biologist's name is 

 included in parentheses; this means that there has 

 been a change in the name originally applied (see 

 "Name Changes" below). Finally, the names may 

 come from Latin, Greek, or any other language, or 

 have meaningless derivation; however, all must be 

 latinized, as californica or califormcus for California 

 and washinglonn or washingloma for Washington. 

 Higher taxa names have the same origin as specific 

 names and are always capitalized but require no 

 special printing or writing. The taxon designation 

 is capitalized only when combined with a scientific 

 name (e.g.. Family Hominidae). 



Subspecific or varietal recognition necessitates the 



formation of three names, a trinomial. The subspe- 

 cies of modern man is Homo sapiens sapiens — more 

 simply, Homo s. sapiens. The specific name is abbre- 

 viated in the previous manner when it is the same as 

 the subspecific name. Further abbreviation is pos- 

 sible if a name follows its nonabbreviated form. 

 For example, if the scientific name of Neanderthal 

 man (assuming Neanderthal and modern man belong 

 to the same species, a premise most biologists do not 

 accept) were to follow in written text the above 

 scientific name for modern man, the Neanderthal's 

 could be written H. s. neanderlhalensis. However, if 

 the Neanderthal's scientific name did not follow that 

 of modern man or of another member of the same 

 genus and species, the correct nomenclature would 

 be Homo sapiens neanderlhalensis. 



The writing of varietal names is somewhat dif- 

 ferent. For example, a particular variety of the Cali- 

 fornia poppy is Eschscholtzia califomica var. crocea. 

 Notice that the word "variety" is abbreviated and 

 that the variety name, like the subspecific, is written 

 in the same manner as specific names. Abbreviation 

 of part of variety names, actually individual genus or 

 species names, is possible only if the variety follows 

 other members of the same species or genus. For ex- 

 ample, after Eschscholtzia califomica, a poppy, these 

 abbreviations are possible: E. c. var. peninsulans for 

 Eschscholtzia califomica var. peninsulans and E. caespi- 

 tosa var. hypecoides for Eschscholtzia caespitosa var. 

 hypecoides, a different species. In no event are any of 

 these abbreviations possible unless they follow di- 

 rectly a complete writing of the word or words that 

 are abbreviated. 



NAME ENDINGS 



Certain taxa of plants and animals tend to have 

 uniform endings because of rules for naming. Al- 

 though exceptions to these rules are permitted on the 

 basis of pre-rule common usage, the following taxa 

 usually have the endings shown; 



Plants 



.Animals 



